More and more documents are published in digital form and on Internet. People have become more interested in reading the digital contents online. The competition for online publishing is also increasingly intensive. To protect copyrights of the digital contents, controlling the read right is particularly important for distributing the digital contents.
Some digital content products may provide an online read function capable of performing right control on the digital contents for the purpose of copyright protection. There are two conventional implementations:
A first one is an autonomous control implementation. The implementation may use a managing function to maintain the rights of the digital contents and to provide a corresponding read range by referring to the rights of a digital content when a user requests read the digital content online.
A second one is an interface control implementation. This implementation may be separated from the digital contents and the right management. The implementation provides only an online read function. When a user requests reading the digital contents online, the system that stores the digital content may request an authority for a right for the user and provide the digital contents according to the right to the user.
In the autonomous control implementation, a single service system manages the digital contents, performs the reading function, and other service functions on the service system. The reading function is not separated from other service functions of the service system. Thus, the autonomous control implementation cannot provide a service to general users as an independent reading tool.
In the interface control implementation, frequent communication with the authority is required, thus resulting in a performance drawback. Also, a corresponding interface has to be developed for a third party to access the digital contents online, thus resulting in an increased cost.